Process to transfer wine in bottles to box-form retail package

ABSTRACT

A process embodied in a machine that accepts bottle-form packages of wine and transfers the contents thereof into a box-form retail package. The machine will perform the transfer repeatedly and sanitarily, while preserving the quality of the transferred wine. The resulting box-form retail package allows the consumer to partake of the contained wine over an extended period of time, without the contained wine spoiling.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to wine and the retail packages of wine available to consumers. More specifically it relates to changing the packaging of wine from one retail form to another.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For many years, retail consumers of wine have had the option to purchase wine in a box rather than in a bottle. Boxed wines have enjoyed relative commercial success, with a growing number of wine producers offering their product in a box instead of a bottle. Compared to a bottle, the box form of retail packaging offers a very specific advantage: the ability to consume unspoiled wine over a greater period of time after opening. Bottled wines, once opened, change flavor and spoil within a matter of days. Boxed wines, however, remain unspoiled over a period of weeks.

The problem for consumers of boxed wines is limited selection. A consumer cannot necessarily enjoy their favorite wine from their favorite wine producer in a box-form retail package, unless their favorite wine happens to be offered by their favorite wine producer in such a package. This invention allows consumers to choose any wine currently offered in a bottle-form retail package and have it transferred into a box-form retail package. This transfer will confer upon the consumer the advantage of consumption over extended periods for wines that are not currently offered in the box-form retail packaging.

Further, this invention will retain its utility even as more wine producers offer their product in a box-form retail package. This retained utility is due to the fact that bottles of wine are often stored and aged over extended periods of time. As bottles in this existing inventory of aged wines are selected for consumption, consumers may still choose to extend that consumption over a greater period of time than a bottle-form retail package allows.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The principal objective of this invention is to provide consumers with a greater variety of wines in a box-form retail package. It is a process embodied in a machine which accepts a variety of wine-bottle shapes and wine-bottle enclosures. These bottle-form retail packages are placed into or connected with an environment which will not adversely affect the flavor, chemistry, or food-safety of the wine. Once placed or connected, the bottle-form retail package is opened by a mechanism appropriate to the wine bottle's enclosure, and the contained wine is transferred by means of a sealed system into a premade box-form retail package which is attached to the other end of the sealed system. Once the transfer is complete, the box-form retail package is sealed and made available to the consumer.

The machine will perform the transfer between retail package forms repeatedly, without any significant contamination between transfers. Decontamination is achieved by a combination of sanitary procedures, and by ensuring that no part of the contents of one transfer are mixed into the contents of a subsequent transfer.

DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the claimed process. It shows each step involved in transferring wine from a bottle-form retail package to a box-form retail package.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

The preferred embodiment of the invention is a machine which is operated by a person trained in the machine's functions and purpose (hereinafter “Technician”). The machine will have a chamber or orifice which will enclose or attach to an unopened bottle-form retail package of wine. Once the Technician has placed or attached the bottle-form retail package of wine in or to the machine, the Technician will select a mechanism appropriate to the bottle-form package's specific enclosure. This opening-mechanism will un-cork, unscrew, or otherwise provide an opening through which the wine contained within a bottle-form retail package can be extracted. Once the opening mechanism has performed its function, the Technician will engage a pumping mechanism so that the wine contained within the bottle-form retail package is extracted and transferred through a sealed system to an attached box-form retail package. When appropriate, the Technician will perform this transfer from multiple bottle-form retail packages into a single box-form retail package by either enclosing or attaching multiple bottles, or by performing the transfer in sequence.

Once the box-form retail package has been filled to capacity, the box-form retail package will be sealed to prevent the newly-enclosed wine from escaping the package. The box-form retail package will then be detached from the machine and made available to the consumer. After the box-form retail package is detached from the machine, the Technician will flush, sanitize, clean, or otherwise prepare the machine for its next transfer in such a way that ensures that each transfer does not contaminate or degrade the transferred wine in any significant way.

A second embodiment of the invention performs the same process as the preferred embodiment, but is operated by retail consumers (hereinafter “Consumer”) with the assistance of significant automation. In this embodiment, the Consumer places a single bottle-form retail package of wine into a chamber, which then encloses and secures the bottle-form package. The machine would then automatically attach itself to the bottle-form package, automatically select an appropriate opening mechanism, and (once opened) automatically commence transferring the contained wine into an attached box-form retail package. Once the transfer is complete, the machine would automatically detach the box-form retail package from the machine and offer it to the consumer, all while preparing itself for the next transfer.

A third embodiment of the invention incorporates the aspects of both the preferred and secondary embodiments. This embodiment is operated by a person who is not the ultimate consumer (hereinafter “Operator”) with the assistance of automated systems. This system would be optimized for a high volume of transfers, with the Operator serving to ensure proper input of box-form packages, proper output of box-form packages, and overall quality control. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A process by which the contents of a bottle of wine are extracted, and said contents are placed into a box-form retail package.
 2. The process of claim 1, wherein the process is performed in a central location and the resulting box-form retail package is made available to consumers either on-site or by delivery.
 3. The process of claim 1, wherein the process is performed locally at multiple sites, conducted either by a consumer or a trained representative of the hosting retail facility, and made available to the consumer on-site.
 4. A machine which transfers wine contained in bottles into a box-form of retail packaging.
 5. The machine of claim 4, wherein said transfer is conducted by a trained operator.
 6. The machine of claim 4, wherein said transfer is conducted by an operator in concert with a system of automation.
 7. The machine of claim 6, wherein said automated transfer takes place within a self-contained retail kiosk.
 8. A box-form of wine-packaging which is compatible with the process of claims 1 thru 3 and the machines of claims 4 thru
 7. 9. A box-form of wine packaging which collapses, stacks into, and is manipulated by, the machine of claim
 7. 10. A box-form of wine packaging which is compatible with the machines of claim 5 or 6, and is strengthened for delivery by common carrier to the consumer. 